The sad history of Pennsylvania’s inability to pass a budget

THE THREE BRANCHES OF government can each do or not do their jobs independent of each other most of the time.

The governor of Pennsylvania never has to ask permission for staying inside the lines of his executive tasks. The Legislature doesn’t need the governor’s OK to introduce bills or debate their finer points. The courts probably fondly remember days when the other two branches didn’t bring their squabbles in front of a judge like tattling children appealing to parents.

Yes, they each have ways to keep the others accountable. But there is only one place where two of them must intersect every year.

It’s the budget. The Legislature controls spending, and to do so, it must vote on a spending plan. The governor executes the budget, which means his office must be involved in the shaping of that budget to ensure the amount of money on the table is enough to get the job done.

The date the budget must be completed does not change. It must be done, voted on and set in stone by June 30 every year.

But “must” is a fluid word in government. The state tells school districts they “must” have their budgets done on that same day. It is a hard-and-fast line.

The state, however, finds the word “must” to be less immovable when it comes to its own work. The Legislature and governor — regardless of party control of either branch — has become more than lax about making its deadline. It is remarkable when it happens on time, not when it doesn’t.

In 20 years, only seven budgets have passed on time, meaning 65% of the time, the state leaders fail to do the one job that makes all other jobs possible.

We barely register the missed deadlines until they get truly out of hand. In 2003, we had the first real budget “impasse” under Gov. Ed Rendell. It was 176 days long. The next year blew through the deadline again — but only by four days. It felt like a victory. It shouldn’t have.

Since then, the budget has been over 100 days late in 2009, 2015 and 2020. That’s 20% of the time.

That is unacceptable. Yes, it is wrong that mountains of legislation are proposed every year and sent to die in committees where it is never debated. It is wrong that legislators, the governor and other statewide officers spend more time campaigning for their next election than doing the jobs they have already won. But it is flatly untenable that this year’s effort to work together will not be about how to make a dollar stretch to do two dollars’ worth of need. Instead, the sides will be grappling over how to do the normal spending as well as how to handle a $14 billion surplus.

If we miss the June 30 deadline again, that will show that none of the delays have been about how to spend the money. They are about how to cut the pie and who gets the bigger share of the credit or fault.

Pennsylvania’s leaders need to do that on their own time, not the public clock.